Yashica cameras and a whole lot more!

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Pigeon 35 by Shinano Camera Co., Ltd.

Why show a 35 mm viewfinder camera on a blog about the Yashica Pentamatic? Well, Shinano and Yashima-Yashica share a common history. The first camera that carried the Yashima name was the Pigeonflex… a twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera!

It’s a nice heavyweight camera that has a good feel to it. In our opinion it’s far from being a cheaply built camera as some would say. In fact, it still functions as intended after 6 decades of use. Most leather cases would be a complete mess after this amount of time but the leather is nice and the stitching is intact.

1952 Pigeon 35 by Shinano.

Nice view of the Tomioka lens.

Beautiful logo on this metal cap.

Classic style. Top plate of the Pigeon 35.

After 6 decades of use the case has held up nicely.

Interesting bottom plate

More to come! By the way, everything works just fine! Can’t wait to run a roll of film through it. Images of the leather case to follow too!

Hello John… Thank you! I was lucky that the Pigeon turned out to be better than expected. I’ll have to check out the Toyoca 35-S… I didn’t know it had the same lens. That’s interesting to hear about the vignetting… I plan on running a roll through the Pigeon soon. I’ve always liked Tomioka lenses and it will interesting to see how the images turn out. R/ Chris

It even has the original sachet of dessicant. The camera is a bakelite casting, with aluminium covers. The film wind and shutter cocking aren’t linked – there’s a button on the back to release the film for winding on, after taking a shot.